Sophia Ling is fighting a city ruling that may force her 3-year-old, Oona, to get a flu vaccine. Photo: Steve White

Last week the city Board of Health voted to force annual flu vaccinations on all babies and children under age 5 who attend day-care centers and preschool programs. Here, Sophia Ling, mother of 3-year-old Oona and a fitness instructor in Staten Island, tells The Post’s Mary Kay Linge how the risks of the shot outweigh the benefits — and wants nannying bureaucrats to stop trampling parents’ rights.

When I first heard about the new flu vaccine rule, I was upset but not surprised. The Board of Health did this so quietly, with no input from parents of young children. The unanimous vote was cast before New Yorkers had any chance to protest.

I don’t respond well to being bullied on a matter of personal health. I also dislike the underhanded way this is being forced only on our youngest citizens. Parents of toddlers aren’t an organized political faction — we’re a bit too busy keeping our kids safe and calculating the distance to the nearest potty.

To get more facts about the flu vaccine, I turned to the Staten Island Natural & Attachment Parenting group on Facebook. Moms banding together are a powerful force. I followed links to documents from the Centers for Disease Control, vaccine manufacturers and research studies. The more I learned, the more livid I became.

In any given year, the CDC admits, the flu vaccine may be totally ineffective against the flu. That’s because scientists have to guess which strains of the flu virus will be going around each year. Some years, they guess wrong.

At best, the flu vaccine may be 60 percent effective. To me, a 0 to 60 percent efficacy rate equals one thing: fail.

Plenty of people who get the flu shot come down with flu anyway. It happened to me, actually — the only time I got a flu shot, during my pregnancy, I was sick for a week.

Not only that, the CDC says, “the flu vaccine works best among healthy adults and older children,” less well for babies and toddlers — the very people being targeted by the city’s new rule. Safety testing on children, especially babies and toddlers, has been limited.

And the side effects of the flu vaccine are very real. The manufacturers’ warning labels give a long list of potential risks — everything from fever and headache to convulsions, blood disorders and Guillain-Barré syndrome. Last flu season, at least five young children died as a direct result of the flu vaccine, according to the federal database that tracked adverse reactions during the 2012-13 flu season.

So, am I willing to roll the dice and hope that Oona is one of the lucky ones? No. In my judgment, the potential risks to my daughter outweigh the possible benefits.

I’m not against vaccination per se. Oona is getting all the vaccinations required by New York state. But those shots have much higher efficacy rates, confer long-term or lifetime immunity and protect against far more dangerous illnesses than the flu.

So now I may have to change my plans for my daughter and me. Rather than send Oona to preschool in the fall, I may choose to homeschool her until she turns 6.

How sad it would be if our new mayor’s signature issue — early childhood education — is undone because parents refuse to be bullied by a government bent on taking away our most basic rights.

Should young children be forced to receive flu vaccinations?

Last year's flu vaccine was 19% effective. If you or I were 19% effective at our jobs, we would be fired. A car that worked 19% of the time would not be one people buy. Yet not only is the flu shot perpetually touted as something people need to be healthy, now they are mandating it in a population is is not indicated for. Furthermore, if you were to look up the most recent payouts from the VICP (Vaccine Injury Compensation Program), guess which vaccines has the most claims against, and most awards for injury (Guillain-Barre being the most frequent)? Yes, that's right folks, the flu shot. Something is rotten in the state of New York. And elsewhere.

Actually NONE of the mandatory vaccines are safe! And NONE have ever been proven by independant research to work!! And..most vaccines shed..which means they can spread the disease, such as measles, mumps or the flu, to others! There are no safe vaccines and ZERO proof vaccines work! If you are against the flu vax...i suggest you do research on all the other vaccines as well..and not on gov propaganda websites or Big Pharma websites. If you are going to vaccinate yourself or your children, at least know what you are putting into yours or your childs body..such as aluminum and mercury, just to start. And yes..these toxins are STILL in vaccines and theres no amt that is safe! Its absolutely despicable that the gov is forcing people to shoot toxic poisons into their bodies knowing it could cause diseases, brain damage and death!!

DeBlasio was so confident he would get free universal pre-k for all 4 year olds, because that was the plan by the government all along. Their plan to have all four year olds enrolled so they slap a mandatory flu vaccine on our children. Who knows what they put in this stuff. It's bad enough the shot is not that effective, but what if it's a way to start taking control of our kids.

In addition, NJ and Conn, have both required annual flu shots for preschool. NJ for a few years now.

Neither state see low flu rates. If one checks the state medical statistics, it is easy to see, these states are not benefiting from this costly endeavor. the only benefit is for the vaccine manufacturer.

It could also be said, that since the flu vaccine barely works and works even less for those under 6, many of the preschoolers are likely receiving the live nasal flu mist which actually spreads both Influenzas A and B,

I am an immunizing pharmacist and podiatrist. I was personally vaccine injured by the hepatitis b vaccine in 1995 and have been living with multiple sclerosis since the initial dose. I briefly practiced podiatry and had a wonderful patient, male gentleman who had been a healthy man with a physically demanding career. Until he got GBS from the flu shot. He never worked a day after the flu shot due to the paralysis in his leg. His leg was eventually amputated. The flu shot destroyed his health. He received no compensation for his vaccine injury. Neither did I. It is extremely difficult to get compensation from the special vaccine court, not to mention that they set the limit of $250,000.00 per dead child. Is it worth the risk of having to traverse a horrific vaccine court while you are in mourning, only to recover $250,000.00? My children are worth more than that to me. We do not get the annual flu shot. It's bad enough that I'm partially blind and paralyzed from the hepatitis b vaccine, and our family's had enough. Many vaccines are neither safe nor effective. Alleged safety studies used by pediatricians and the CDC are epidemiological, meaning they are based on inaccurate statistics. Only the few people who actually report vaccine injury are counted in the studies, making vaccines appear much safer than they actually are.

I am in NY too. Please go to your Priest or Rabbi for a Religious Exemption. As a Roman Catholic it is against my religious belief to cause harm or death to another person. Since the flu vaccine can and does indeed cause death and paralysis and I do not want anyone to suffer these horrific vaccine injuries, my child will not be receiving these vaccines. You get the gist, it's the route we have to take in NY. We must band together to demand that better vaccine injury studies performed. In the USA the vaccine manufacturers have no liability and therefore no incentive to provide safe or effective vaccines. They are permitted by law to use false advertising for promote their products. Blessings to all fellow New Yorkers in your fight against the flu shot! Stay Strong! Stay United! Most of all, don't let your baby die or get paralyzed from a flu shot!

This is just the tip of the iceberg of government agencies trying to force vaccination on our population, despite all the evidence that they are ALL ineffective and pose more harm than good. Educate before you Vaccinate! www.nvic.org

Oh lovely, the Flu shot is loaded with Mercury, yes, the same stuff which Freedom of Information told us that the CDC admit can cause Autism and speech delays, they then said that the information must remain 'embargoed' (that's the word the CDC used in their private Simpsonwood meeting)

The only time I ever got sick with any disease ever was days after receiving "vaccine" I got the Flu 5 days to week after getting flu shot. I got chicken pox soon after getting that vaccine. even though I spent every waking moment with my best friend and even slept over for 4-5 days while he had the chicken pox 2 years prior, and did not get it. Then After the Vaccine I get chicken pox so bad all over inside my mouth on back of my throat and all over my tong causing layers of skin to peal off my tong and to this day has effected my sense of taste.

"There is only contrived evidence vaccines prevent death. There is
incontrovertible evidence that a shortage of vitamin C, emanating from poor
diet, smoking, overuse of alcohol, aspirin, or vitamin-depleting drugs (the
very drugs they treat flu patients with — steroids, antibiotics, etc.), is
likely the primary cause of flu-related mortality. What this report alleges is
that modern medicine casts a blind eye at nutritional medicine because they
need deaths, published in the news media, to frighten the public into
vaccination.”

In the year 2013, I truly cannot believe there are American citizens who support "mandatory vaccination" especially when the vaccine in question has poor efficacy and not proven 100% safe. In fact, the CDC and FDA have conceded that ALL vaccines are "unavoidably UNSAFE." Do you really want your children to be mandated to receive an annual flu shot when a potential adverse reaction is DEATH? Yes, it happens! And there is no way to pre-determine who will experience an adverse reaction to any vaccine.

Vaccination against the flu does not prevent the spread of viral illness; Therefore, vaccinating others for "the greater good" makes no logical sense whatsoever. ALL people, including children can touch an infected doorknob, touch another person and spread illness. There is NOTHING about vaccination that prevents you from doing that. NOTHING. A recent study showed that baboons recently vaccinated against pertussis actually harbored the pertussis bacteria in their throats making them asymptomatic carriers of...pertussis! There is absolutely NO reason to believe this is not the case with other illnesses as well.

People have lost their heads when it comes to the flu shot. We are exposed to viral and bacterial illness every single day. I am so sick and tired of hearing the CDC shove this statement down our throats: "the flu shot isn't perfect, but it's ALL WE HAVE" (to protect against flu) NO, its not all we have! What we have is an IMMUNE system! If we caught every single bug we were exposed to we would be sick all the time. The beauty of the immune system is that you can be exposed to many illnesses, develop immunity to them and not get sick! When you vaccinate against the flu year after year after year, you deny your body the ability to develop these natural immunities!

The CDC greatly exaggerate annual deaths from the flu. Children very rarely died of the flu, in fact, the numbers of children dying of the flu have only increased recently when the recommendation to begin flu shots at just 6mos of age began a few years ago. The odds of dying from the flu are 1 in a million!!

Where are the studies to support the safety of a lifetime of flu shots? Where is the safety proving these policies are safe for mass populations? ie) one size fits all?

I support the fight against mandatory vaccination. I am aware there are medical and religious exemptions in the state of NY; however, as always, parents will not be made aware of their right to full informed consent. The government has NO RIGHT to tell me how to care for my body and the bodies of my children and how to prevent and spread illness. This is a VERY slippery slope and it must be stopped NOW.

We have started a petition against this mandate. We believe it should be the parents choice and not have it forced on our children. Please sign our petition and share it on Facebook if possible we could use your helping getting it out there.

Think about this: All life comes to an end in some way. Some are taken young, others after a long life, but either way, it is not easy for those of us left behind on earth. We try to keep everyone alive, but why? So that WE don't have to suffer when they are gone? So they can have the life that we judge to be long enough? We try to prolong everyone's life by forcing people to vaccinate, and by trying to find a cure for every disease. In the process, we are eliminating natural selection, keeping the unfit alive and populating the gene pool with what is NOT the strongest of the species.

I am not saying this because I think that we should just let everyone go, as there is a season and a purpose to every thing on this planet, but sometimes I do wonder if other things (such as cancer, and mental illness) are cropping up en masse in order to balance out the amount that humans have wrecked the whole concept of survival of the fittest?

I'm with Dr. Malcolm on this one: Life finds a way. Or maybe in this case, death.

Wow - I see a lot of idiotic 'moms' posting in the comments section. Just because Jenny McCarthy believes vaccines are bad, doesn't make it so! There are so many misinformed people out there - misinformed people that threaten my life, because I have cancer, and a compromised immune system. Your refusal to vaccinate your healthy kids makes my foray into the world more precarious. With all of the un-vaccinated kids, measles and polio will come back, and then you will all be sorry.

@Jenny so what measles is a minor illness..most of my generation had it and survived with permanent immunity unlike what you get with vaccines..there has not been a case of wild type polio in many many years in the western hemisphere...the only cases of polio have been those induced by the oral polio vaccine fyi

NOBODY SHOULD BE FORCED TO RECEIVE VACCINES/MEDICAL TREATMENT ESPECIALLY IF THERE IS RISK THAT CAN MAKE THEM BRAIN DAMAGED, AND THAT'S A FACT THAT VACCINES CAN DO THAT BY CROSSING BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER!!! NOT TO MENTION THAT VACCINES ALSO SUPPRESS IMMUNE SYSTEM..

We have started a petition against this mandate. We believe it should be the parents choice and not have it forced on our children. Please sign our petition and share it on Facebook if possible we could use your helping getting it out there.

For those that think people who don't "believe in the flu shot" shouldn't use hospitals -- that's THE stupidest comment I've read (correction, that I've read multiple times..) look around at our country. Medication is overused in this country (that's how you have all these fun strains of flu, and MRSA, etc..) overuse in antibiotics...and medications/antibiotics are used when they need be in this country. So do I treat MY children at home for a virus/ear infection/cold...yes absolutely have been doing it for years. And I believe firmly in alternative/natural medication for 90% of the things that are happening in our lives...but don't tell me because of that, I need to shun modern medicine. It has it's place..it's just warped, overused and for being the ah-mazing country we are supposed to be..most of our population is fat, stupid, unhealthy and brainwashed.

The nasal flu vaccine (LAIV) is both very safe and very effective in preventing flu in children aged 6 months to 7 years.

"LAIVs
consistently show highest efficacy in young children (aged 6
months to 7 years) ... In children aged 6 months to 7 years,
there were six [randomised control trial] studies covering eight
influenza seasons. In all eight seasons, the vaccine provided
significant protection against infection; the random-effects pooled
vaccine efficacy was 83% (95% CI 69–91; figure 2) and median
vaccine efficacy was 78% (range 57–93)."

A 78 to 83%
effectiveness (depending on statistical analysis method used) is very
high indeed, especially when you consider that it is derived from a
combined analysis of six different studies conducted over 8 flu seasons.

Protecting
children from a killer disease like influenza is vital, especially
because compared to adults young children are at vastly higher risk of
hospitalisation and serious complications (like pneumonia), and of
death.

@Alec Duncan Actually, the nasal vaccine also forces children to inhale MSG, a known and widely accepted neurotoxin. Why is it in there? Who knows... and according to the package insert, common side effects (over 10% of recipients) get the flu. They just list it by individual symptom.... runny nose, nausea, fever, aches, headaches, etc. AND they recommend staying away from immunocompromised people for 2 WEEKS because they are CONTAGIOUS WITH THE FLU. Do you understand this? The vaccine causes the flu itself and is contagious.

@Alec Duncan the LAIV requires viral shedding and those who are immune compromised maybe others are at risk of actually getting flu from the viral shedding....so in fact the LAIV puts at risk the very groups it supposedly would protect...and the LAIV is likely the cause of many of the flu cases in young children as it was the favored vaccine this year for children

So the study says that flu vaccines don't generally work, but that there's a chance they'll work in children, however they completely ignore the safety of the vaccines. Keep in mind that Flu vaccines contain Mercury

@Alec Duncan the nasal flu mist also leaves the recipient contagious, shedding a live virus for up to 28 days according to the insert. So why are these children allowed in school or daycare when they are contagious?

I work in the medical field and have access to the inserts within the vaccine, something that is NEVER offered to the patients, recently I was Required to get the vaccine because I work for hospital. After reading through the inserts I was shocked to find out that of the 5 influenza vaccines we offered 3 contained formaldehyde, the other 2 thimerosal. The National cancer institute lists Formaldehyde as a known carcinogen! Enough said!

As for thimerosal, there has never been a study showing a link to this chemical and adverse conditions. As well there are thimerosal free versions of the flu shot available all you have to do is ask. So that is not a reason to reject the vaccine.

@Benjamin Ashraf Are you on drugs? Do you not understand that 80% plus of the immune system is through the flora of the gut and the mucous membranes? There is such a vast difference in the body's response to ingestion versus injection that you show yourself to be of too ignorant a position to be commenting on here at all. And the main study showing thimerasol "safety" was conducted on a handful of terminally ill patients in the '30's and they all died of there illness within weeks of injection. The conclusion was that thimerasol was safe. It is the same "scientific" study methodology used by AAP and other "in the pocket" cheerleaders of a shamefully profit driven industry. The only industry to be punished more than pharma (even with them owning so many in government) is banking.

Her figure of 60% effective that is often quoted comes from the Cochrane Colloboraton's analysis of all the valid research. However the real figure is one in 99 or just over 1%. Another lie you have been told So it is way worse than even she thinks

Has anyone stopped to think that public schools receive a federal subsidy for every child that shows up in class, and a flu outbreak would restrict the amount of money received? There is always a money trail. And the people that are for the shots are a lot of the same people that hate the "big bad pharmaceutical companies". The bottom line is that the child is HER child, and she has every right to her decision. If a lot of you had read the entire article, her child is up to date with the other vaccines, dpt, etc. My husband received the pneumonia vaccine, and got pneumonia that year, and the following 2 years. He got the flu vaccine one year, and was sick for over a week. Medical practice is just that, a practice since science is always changing.

We have started a petition against this mandate. We believe it should be the parents choice and not have it forced on our children. Please sign our petition and share it on Facebook if possible we could use your helping getting it out there.

Not to point fingers, but as I am reading the comments here - first question, is there an organized group out there that parents like us can join to support our cause against this ridiculous mandate? Secondly, I get frustrated with those parents who are doctors, nurses, and pediatricians and who think they know better by educating us parents on what is right or wrong. If you want your ineffective vaccine, go ahead and have it, but don't shove it down our throats with your brainwashed education that justifies injecting our kids with this "crap".

Quite frankly, I would take a good look at Bloomberg's connections. I would bet he is benefitting financially by signing this law into effect. Somewhere down the line, he has connections - show me the money. People need to ask if this yahoo would have his children, or grandchildren injected with this crap.

I live in New Jersey and I feel my rights as a mother violated every year I get a letter from my daughter's school saying that by January 2nd if she doesn't get the flu shot she can't come back to school!!! >:(

@AlejandraI was in NJ and was forced to have my 4 year old take a flu shot as well. I was furious. I was told in order to have the religious exemption, I would have to have a letter from my religious organization and that since I was not a bona fide member of a religious group who opposes medicine for long enough, that it would not apply. They told me they could bar my child from coming to school if he did not comply.

I hope that you have the religious exemption law NJ too as we have it in NY, all four of my children are exempt I get the same papers every year, send the form back and the school accepts it, it works, Contact me if have an questions at my Facebook "erjan benobe" I know ins and outs of it all

@Heather Haigh@Alejandra that is untrue..they cannot force you to be a member of an organized religion ...a religion can be any closely held belief....you might contact an attorney...allen phillips helps adults with this...would be worth speaking to him about it..there have been court cases at least one i know of where a person was not a part of a church but argued she deserved the same right to exemption..and she won